Chapter 697 - Backyard of Stray Priest ㉗
This is an afterword to the fourth episode of Chapter 27.
The sun is about to sink into the vast ocean as far as the eye can see. The clouds trailing far in the western sky are illuminated in golden light, and the sky is changing from blue to red.
When it becomes late autumn, the wind carries a slight chill. The wind blowing from the sea is very clear. For Jeanne, who was born and raised in an inland area close to the mountains, the evening view of the sea was a sight she gazed at with a kind of longing.
"The sunset sinking into the sea is nice, isn't it?"
"It's beautiful."
"When I first rode the ship to go to a foreign country and came to Primordia, I saw the sun setting into the sea from the ship for the first time in my life."
"Yeah."
"At that time, you know, I ended up crying."
"At the sunset?"
"Yeah. I wonder why. I didn't understand it myself, though."
The current Jeanne is laughing brightly.
The two are at the watchtower of the Primordia Royal Palace, which has a good view of the sea. Since the royal palace is built on a cliff at the edge of the sea, the entire western side is the sea. A large rock is poking its face out of the sea surface a little offshore, and waves are crashing against it.
Jeanne is spending her days as a trainee in etiquette, as the fiancée of Yorg, a Sertogne noble. Today as well, she had been completing her tasks for the day since morning. Sensing that she had somehow finished and taken a breath, Sianya had invited her to the watchtower to watch the sunset since the weather was good.
Sianya, while looking at Jeanne's profile illuminated by the sunset and dyed red, remembered the time she herself had cried while watching the sunset.
When Sianya was born, she was not a princess.
Her father was the King's younger brother, and her uncle was the King. Of course, as long as she was royalty, she also had the right of succession to the throne, and she was scheduled to be educated to have the knowledge for when she became King, just in case. However, around the time she became aware of her surroundings, her uncle was a warrior worthy of being the son of the hero who defeated the Demon Lord, and his son had already been born. Besides, Sianya also had an older brother. Both those around her and she herself thought it was unlikely that Sianya would inherit the throne.
Her father, the King's younger brother, was handling government affairs as if hiding in the shadow of his great older brother King. For Sianya, her uncle, who was a large warrior, was a scary presence and difficult to approach. On the other hand, her father was average in both martial arts and stature, and was kind. He was a doting father and often took her to play at the beach near the royal palace. Sianya loved the sunset seen from the beach with her father, brothers, and her nephew Edward. As a result of Sianya saying she wanted to keep watching the sunset, they ended up leaving the beach after the sun had set, and her father's playful gestures, as if a thief or someone were sneaking into the royal palace, when they sneaked back through the back door, delighted the children.
That kind of daily life changed completely. Her uncle the King, who was thought to have no enemies, caught a disease and died quite easily.
Even without that, they were in the middle of a war with Engrio. Her father suddenly ended up taking command at the front. Fortunately, they won the war, and her father also returned in triumph. However, from that time, a quiet battle with the domestic nobles began. It was painful to see her father becoming exhausted as the days passed.
And one day, Sianya was instructed by her father to enter the priesthood along with her older and younger brothers. It was just after she had set her mind to supporting her father the King as royalty together with her brothers and nephew once she became an adult, so she was struck by a sense of helplessness. At that time, seeing the splendid sunset sinking into the sea, tears came out naturally. It wasn't that she disliked entering the priesthood. It was just that she thought at the time that she was not being relied upon by her father.
"Was it a difficult time?"
Sianya asked Jeanne. Because the time she herself cried while watching the sunset was a time when she faced a major change in her circumstances.
"That's right. I became a scout concurrently in order to eat, and disguised as a peddler together with my father and husband, I crossed to a foreign country for the first time in my life. The time I saw the sunset sinking into the sea was then."
The circumstances of Sianya, who is royalty, and Jeanne, who is a commoner, are quite different.
"Scouts deceive people, don't they? The me at that time, because I had just become a scout, somehow disliked it. Faking my status and telling lies, and having backroom talks with only those kinds of people. Because, isn't it against the teachings of God... the Goddess?"
Jeanne continues to watch the sunset sinking into the sea, just like the Sianya of that time.
"But, somehow, while I was watching the sunset sinking into the sea like now, I felt like everything was forgiven."
Sianya silently hugged the shoulder of Jeanne, who laughed, saying, "It's just my own selfish assumption, though."
Jeanne might have seen the future in the sinking sunset at that time. Sianya thought so.
The sunset is the same now as in the past. Even looking at the same sunset, depending on the viewer, they hold opposite thoughts. In other words, it must be the state of the viewer's heart.
The me who was tormented by a sense of helplessness at that time has now become the Primordia King's Advisor. Along with the son of her uncle who had the name of a hero as he pleased, she has become an existence called the two wheels of the Primordia Liberation King. Perhaps, the me of that time also, without noticing it, was actually seeing the future.
"But, it was difficult after that, wasn't it?"
Whether it was Sianya or Jeanne, after they shed tears while watching the sunset, their circumstances up to then changed greatly.
"That's right. My father died in the war, and even my former husband, whom I married just before the start of the war, died, and I was consulting with my mother about how the two of us would live. As for the work of a scout, because the country had changed, I had no prospects. It wasn't so easy that we could eat just with the medicinal herbs picked by two women's hands. That said, hunting was naturally no match for men. But, fortunately, because of my experience going abroad as a peddler and my knowledge of medicinal herbs, I was picked up by Theresia-sama. I was able to become the person in charge of the medicinal herb garden as a scout directly under her. With that, I became able to participate in transactions with Sertogne. There, I met Yorg-sama. We started doing transactions together on the White Island. Thanks to Theresia-sama putting in a good word for me, I started participating in medicinal herb lectures and the Great Unity Conference as a representative of the Duchy of Germania's medicinal herb garden. Finally, the talk came about me becoming the body-double for Jeanne of Sertoria..."
Finally, she didn't go as far as saying marriage with Yorg-sama. As someone from a commoner background, she probably can't put it into words because it's too awe-inspiring. We'll be in trouble if she doesn't get used to it. Sianya didn't say that. That kind of thing should be said by the person who is giving her etiquette training every day.
"It's dizzying, isn't it?"
She just said that.
"It really is. Wearing these kinds of clothes."
Jeanne lowered her gaze and looked at the clothes she was wearing.
A girl who had only worn clothes of hemp, linen, or wool is now wrapped in a silk dress with lots of embroidery. Despite the fact that even the palace maids rarely wear them.
"Is it really okay? Someone like me, being Yorg-sama's wife. Normally, it would be a one-night playmate at most, wouldn't it?"
Sianya accepted with a smile the words she had said many times before.
"I wonder if that Yorg-sama would look for a one-night playmate?"
If he were going to pick someone up, he would go to a brothel. That would be quicker, and he wouldn't need fancy pick-up lines.
That's certainly true, Jeanne thought so.
The first time Jeanne met Yorg was after the campaign in the current Duchy of Germania territory ended and the new Duchy was born. Sertogne and Germania started trading, and trading ships started coming from Sertogne, which has territory on the opposite bank of the peninsula country of Germania. However, during the war it was one thing, but before the war they were trading using the same port as West Liber and Sertogne, so in reality only the country name had changed. Merchants are resilient in any era, and at the point when King Seldic was occupying the current Duchy territory, they had already sent out ships upon receiving a request from the Sertogne royal family line.
Fortunately, in choosing a scout directly under her, she caught the eye of the Duchess of Germania, Theresia. She was hired as a scout directly under her and as the person in charge of the medicinal herb garden. Even though she was called the person in charge of the medicinal herb garden, in short, it centered on her mother or herself picking the specified medicinal herbs and handing them over to the manager after processing them so they would keep, and she wasn't involved in cultivation. She also took more than necessary, or took other types of medicinal herbs, and sold them to dealers in other countries while disguised as a peddler. At that time, exchanging various information was also her job as a scout. Yorg was looking for a new trading partner because the noble of West Liber who was his previous trading partner had died in the war. There, the one he got to know was Jeanne. Yorg placed trust in the breadth and depth of her knowledge of medicinal herbs, and bought into her experience of going as a peddler to Primordia several times in the past. And he designated her as his new trading partner.
"You visited Yorg-sama's family home together, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"At that time, you met Yorg-sama's father, mother, and older brothers, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Everyone was truly happy from the bottom of their hearts that that Yorg-sama had found a bride for himself."
"That may be so, but..."
"You are the adopted daughter of a local lord within the current Duchy of Germania territory... that is, a noble who did not side with West Liber from the beginning."
"Yes. I understand, but... But, after all, I look inferior compared to others, don't I? Normally, for a family of Yorg-sama's standing, they would choose a partner who is diplomatically beneficial as a marriage partner, wouldn't they?"
She's quite indecisive. However, if she were a girl who simply rejoiced in marrying into wealth and rejoiced in being able to live a luxurious life, Yorg-sama probably wouldn't have chosen her. Sianya thought so.
"Hey, Jeanne."
"Yes."
"I wonder if Jeanne understands Yorg-sama's role in the Kingdom of Sertogne?"
"Role?"
Does that clumsy Yorg-sama, who doesn't look like a noble from any angle, have a national role? For Jeanne, she could only think of him as the director of a clinic that uses medicinal herbs and Heal magic.
"Ufufu. There's that too. Actually, Yorg-sama has gone to war and is serving as the director of a field clinic."
"That's right, isn't it?"
"But, you know, originally he is a person who conducts transactions with various countries centered on medicinal herbs. By the way, Jeanne was a peddler of medicinal herbs, wasn't she?"
"Ah!"
I see! I get it.
"A scout... no, the organizer... the one in charge of collecting information?"
Sianya smiled instead of answering.
"Yorg-sama's lineage draws the blood of the Sertogne royal family. And he also has connections with the Sertorian royal family."
"Yes."
"Jeanne is the adopted daughter of a local noble and directly under the former Duchess of Germania, Theresia-sama. And your guardian is me... the Princess of Primordia and the King's Advisor."
"Y-Yes..."
Jeanne finally grasped what kind of position she was placed in. She felt a feeling as if her body were trembling.
Because she was a scout who had gone as far as Sertogne and Primordia, she roughly understands the current intentions of each country. Duchess of Germania Theresia wants to build friendly relations with surrounding countries including Sertogne. Sertogne desires a state of non-aggression with the Duchy of Germania and West Liber, and wants to deepen friendly relations with the Northwest Coast Treaty nations of the White Island. The Northwest Coast Treaty nations do not want to be involved in the war on the continent, and want to maintain a state of non-aggression with Engrio... that is, the East Liber behind it. Currently, each country is continuing to feel each other out. She doesn't think that her marrying Yorg as the adopted daughter of a Germania noble will directly have an effect, but it might at least serve as a catalyst for dialogue. In other words, for each country, there is a possibility that it will be beneficial, even if only slightly.
"And Bishop Jeanne and Mary, who have the deep trust of me and the Sertorian royalty, will participate in the wedding of Yorg-sama and you as friends."
"Y-Yes."
Her saying "friends" was encouraging.
"The current Jeanne is in that kind of position. That alone has value. And whether you can be a partner for Yorg-sama, who has that unique sensibility. His family members were relieved when they saw Jeanne. Because a normal noble's daughter could never do it."
"I-Is that so?"
"That's right. That's why Yorg-sama was able to choose Jeanne. I think you already know, but Yorg-sama is a truly intelligent person. And he is kind. A person of that caliber chose you. That Jeanne is the woman he loves."
"Yes."
Sianya doesn't say "have confidence." That is something the person herself should naturally acquire.
"The sun will sink very soon."
"That's right."
More than half of the large sun has hidden its figure in the sea.
Seeing that Jeanne's expression had become brighter, Sianya thought there was no need to talk about her marriage any more than this. At least for today. After that, Jeanne herself will sort it out. And then they can talk again.
The two of them are watching the sun sink into the sea. The color of the sea changes to a dark one tinged with gray, and the western sky gradually changes to a dark red color. Soon it will completely submerge in the sea, and the veil of night will descend instead.
"Ah!"
"Oh, we're lucky."
"T-The sun, it seemed to glow green..."
She must be doubting her own eyes. She confirmed with Sianya.
"Yes. It's a miracle of the Goddess that can be seen very rarely. It's also said to be the light of blessing that brings good luck to the viewer."
"Is that true!"
"It's true. But in Jeanne's case, I wonder if it's happiness rather than good luck."
"Happiness..."
Jeanne knelt and crossed her arms in front of her chest. When Sianya chanted words of prayer, she joined in.
Upon her engagement, she converted along with her mother. Originally, polytheism was popular in the coastal areas, and even now when most people have converted, its remnants remain strongly in festivals and annual events. Spirit worship is also deep-rooted. Hunters living in the forest were especially so. Perhaps because of that, there was no particular resistance to converting. Sianya was present at the conversion ceremony for the two of them. And now, Jeanne has obtained the blessing of the Goddess.
"Now, let's go inside."
"Yes."
Even though it was dark, Sianya saw Jeanne shed a single tear when she stood up. The fact that she was wiping her eyes with her right hand is proof of that.
Surely, today as well, she saw the future in the sunset.